Three months ago Benghazi was a scandal simmering mainly in conservative circles. Now it’s so front-and-center that the White House is opening up its email inbox to explain the talking points that ignited the controversy in the first place.

That’s a long way for a scandal to travel – from partisan anger to national conversation – and one that can be explained only in part by Republican enthusiasm for the story.

Behind the scenes, a loose network of conservative groups and activists have been lobbying House and Senate Republicans for months to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya, urging members of Congress in meetings, letters and in social media to keep the heat on President Barack Obama.

The strategy kept the issue alive, so when a whistleblower stepped forward last week, it was primed for primetime.

Rep. Frank Wolf told POLITICO the outside groups, especially those with retired military and special forces members, were instrumental to raising the issue’s national profile.

“The outside groups have made all the difference in the world,” said the Virginia Republican, who has been a major support of forming a select committee to investigate what happened in Benghazi.

The third party groups and activists haven’t been working in a vacuum. There was a perfect political storm brewing: House Republicans welcomed the fight with Obama, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa gladly became the public face of the attacks, and Senate Republicans were eager to tie former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the incident as she contemplates a 2016 presidential run.

And now Benghazi is getting front-page attention from national media and big-name Republicans like Dick Cheney have pounced on recent revelations the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and White House were more intimately involved in drafting a public response to the attack than previously thought.

The White House responded directly Wednesday, releasing a binder of internal emails on the issue.

The outside group’s pressure campaign has been a multi-pronged offensive with ex-military officials rallying the grassroots base while Washington operatives at American Crossroads, Citizens United and others have mounted an inside-the-Beltway campaign with online videos, letters to Congress and Twitter activity.

“This was an attack on American sovereign soil. America has a history of aiding those Americans that are taking fire,” said Scott Taylor, former Navy SEAL and OPSEC president, of the importance of getting to the answer of what happened in Benghazi and why a military response wasn’t initiated.

OPSEC, a group consisting of former special forces officers, has been involved since the Benghazi attacks happened, beginning its push in October by sending out a releases and an ad called “Bump in the Road” that was critical of the administration’s Benghazi response.

Since then, the group has continued its offensive, including a concerted effort to build support for a House select committee to investigate the attack that has been spearheaded by Wolf.

OPSEC’s multi-pronged lobbying campaign also brought a face to the issue coordinating a Capitol Hill visit of Charles Woods, Ty Woods’ father, asking lawmakers to investigate his son’s death in Benghazi.

That effort also included the release of an 8-minute video entitled “Benghazi: Unaware, Unresponsive and Unaccountable,” and concluded by asking viewers to write lawmakers in support for a select committee. Since it’s release inmid-April, it has helped generate 15,000 letters and has also coincided with the increase off co-sponsors from 70 to nearly 150.

Taylor said that the despite the months without gaining traction they never stopped.

Wolf said OPSEC and another military group Special Operations Speaks were key to the effort to raise Benghazi’s profile. Special Operations Speaks organized a letter in April that got more than 700 former Special Operations veterans to add their signature to it. The missive argues that the decision not to send in a rescue team violated the ethos of the military that no one is left behind helped grow support.

Dick Brauer, co-founder for Special Operations Speaks, said that his group’s letter “really primed the pump. Benghazi was really lying fallow with all the other things going on.”

The group, which had been active since November when it released a series of unanswered questions relating to Benghazi, has had Brauer and others from SOS on talk radio and Fox News giving interviews for months.

Wolf also cited Watergate counsel and former Sen. Fred Thompson and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, along with the parents of two of the men who died as making a big impact.

“I think ultimately the American people will insist that this gets done,” Wolf said. “I think it will happen because it’s the right thing to do.”

Conservative advocates say the momentum has been building for weeks with the House legislation now at 149 cosponors, including Wolf. Since the Easter recess, Wolf’s bill has gotten 80 new co-sponsors, 37 new co-sponsors since the release of the House’s progress report and 12 new since Issa’s hearing last week, according to his office.

Other groups have also joined the fight. In April, conservative leaders like David Bossie of Citizens United, William Boykin of Family Research Council, Brent Bozell of ForAmerica and others signed onto a letter urging lawmakers to sign on.

American Crossroads has run six videos over the last several months, trying to keep the spotlight on Benghazi, most recently featuring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

American Crossroads’ Jonathan Collegio said the Benghazi is a complex issue spanning disparate elements, agencies and people.

“There has been a real demand for succinct video products to educate average people on what happened, who said what and why,” Collegio said. “The Crossroads Benghazi videos have generated nearly 800,000 views online and millions more on television, which demonstrates the real demand for succinct explanations as to what happened.”